Floodgate delivered for installation

Terrebonne got a special Valentine’s Day delivery Thursday, one that will help prevent destructive storm surges from rushing up the Houma Navigation Canal into the heart of the parish.

Nikki BuskeyStaff Writer

Terrebonne got a special Valentine’s Day delivery Thursday, one that will help prevent destructive storm surges from rushing up the Houma Navigation Canal into the heart of the parish.The Terrebonne Levee District took delivery of a 273-foot-long, 60-foot-wide and 42-foot-high barge floodgate. The floodgate was floated from Bollinger Marine Shipyard’s Amelia location down the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway to the Houma Navigation Canal.The $48 million floodgate represents the centerpiece of the Terrebonne Levee District’s effort to build a scaled-down version of the Morganza-to-the-Gulf hurricane-protection system with state and local tax dollars. The levee system, which will stretch from Cut Off to Gibson, will protect Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes from storm flooding.“The delivery of the Bubba Dove Barge is a great day for the citizens of Terrebonne,” said Terrebonne Levee Director Reggie Dupre. “The people of Terrebonne love their parish. What an appropriate day for it to arrive on. Happy Valentine’s Day, Terrebonne.”The barge is named for state Rep. Gordon Dove’s son, who died in a car accident in 2009. Dove, R-Houma, has been an aggressive advocate for the Morganza project.Creating a way to block the Houma Navigation Canal has been a top priority for local levee officials. The canal was dug in a straight path, and it acts as a funnel sending water from the Gulf of Mexico directly toward Houma, Dularge and Dulac.During the peak of Hurricane Ike in 2008, U.S. Geological Survey water gauges measured more than 1.4 billion gallons of water per hour rushing up the Houma Navigation Canal.The barge floodgate is a unique solution to Terrebonne’s need for cheap, quick interim flood protection. The genesis of the idea came after hurricanes Katrina and Rita when Sheriff Jerry J. Larpenter suggested sinking a ship in the Houma Navigation Canal before a storm to block surge from rushing up the waterway toward Houma. The idea was investigated by local engineering companies, which settled on a permanent structure that would use a sinking barge to create a barrier against flooding.When sunk in place in the Houma Navigation Canal, the barge will rise 18 feet above the waterline to block surge, and as water piles up against the closed gate, the pressure will actually cause it to seal tighter.The Levee District has already built similar smaller floodgate structures in Bush and Placid canals in lower Terrebonne. They were finished in 2011. Floodgates are also underway for Bayou Grand Caillou and Bayou Little Caillou.The Houma Navigation Canal floodgate will be finished before the start of this hurricane season.Larry Thibodaux, project manager with Bollinger Marine Fabrication, said the project went smoothly from start to finish.The project was broken into two parts, with Bollinger responsible for building the barge that will seal the floodgate. It took Bollinger about 18 months to build the enormous structure. Its final job was to safely deliver the floodgate to its home in the Houma Navigation Canal, where it will be installed by L&A Contracting of Hattiesburg, Miss., over the next two weeks, said Levee District Manager Angela Rains.The barge took more than 12 hours to make its way from Amelia to Terrebonne, guided by three boats from Caillou Island Towing of Houma.Thibodaux said this was the first time Bollinger fabricated a flood protection project like this.“It was quite interesting. We’ve never worked on anything like this before,” Thibodaux said. “The project went smoothly from start to finish, and we’re very happy we had the opportunity to do something like this for the citizens of Terrebonne Parish.”

Nikki Buskey can be reached at 857-2205 or nicole.buskey@houmatoday.com.

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